Why are baseball pitchers generally horrible batters?

Answer 1

Because all they focus on is pitching. All they do is pitch during the offseason and pitch and pitch and pitch. They dont need to bat, thats why they have 8 other guys to do.

Not all pitchers are bad hitters. Some good hitters that are pitchers are Carlos Zambrano, Jason Marquis, Dontrelle Willis, and Mike Hampton

Answer 2

In most cases it doesn't have as much to do with the amount of practice as msany people seem to think. Look at the majors: it is the best baseball league in the world, we're talking about the top 1% of the top 1%.

There are so few people in the world who could hit decently at the major league level; by the token there are very few who can pitch at the major league level. Thus the odds of someone being able to do both are very small. Of course, MLB pitchers are exceptional athletes so they may be better at hitting than your average Joe. But hitting a baseball has less to do with overall athletic ability than it does a specific skill set which is why you'll see exception athletes who are not great ballplayers (by MLB standards) like Billy Beane or Rueben Rivera and guys who are not great athletes who are good major league players, like David Eckstein or Cecil Fielder. Even ones who in high school were their teams top hitters - that doesnt mean they can hack it at the major league level; think about it - there are a whole lot of good high school hitters who really wouldnt make it in A ball, let alone the majors.

The bottom line is that MLB pitcher are very gifted at throwing a ball and probably not nearly as gifted at hitting one and thus even if they were to focus on hitting equally they would still probably not become great (or even mediocre) major league hitters.

Answer 3

Along what everyone else is saying, pitchers spend all their time on pitching instead of hitting. I see a lot of people have mentioned Carlos Zambrano as being a good hitting pitcher, but I don't think anyone has said anything about Tim Hudson. When he was in college he actually won the SEC batting title, that's impressive.

Answer 4

They're horrible batters because, #1 they don't do it very often. No manager is going to send his starting pitcher for batting practice for fear of him getting hurt. The relievers almost never bat because it's so easy to pinch hit for them. Heck pitchers in the American league don't even get to hit at all. It's simply they get paid to pitch and not hit. It's all about the investment a team makes in a player. If you asked National league pitchers if they wanted to hit 85% would say no.

Answer 5

The DH is ussualy started as early as High School often. So from a young age these ptichers ofther dont get the development of hitting that they should.

Here is the thing. Most pitchers were probably star hitters when they were young.. they just never grew to the point of hitting well against major leauge pitchers.

Answer 6

Pitchers are not that good at batting because they dont practice on batting that often like the other players.Usually on days of practice while everybody is practicing their hitting the only one not doing that is the pitcher because their main focus is pitching. If the pitcher were to stop practicing pitching as much to make time to practice his batting it might worsten his performence as a pitcher.

Answer 7

Their not expected to hit so most don't waste the time trying to improve. Its especially tough for someone that has pitched in the AL and moves to the NL. Pitchers have enough to worry about so any hit a pitcher gets is a bonus.

Answer 8

Most were not great hitters in the first place so they decided to pitch. In the AL league they never get a chance to hit unless it is interleague. There are a few exceptions. I think pitchers should hit just like the rest of the players.

Answer 9

well believe it or not, some pitchers can really wack it out. like carlos zambrano, you wouldnt think he could ... but yeh, MOST pitchers are terrible batters. this could be partially because many of them turn the other way to bat. meaning if they're a right handed pitcher (and so, naturally they would bat right too) they bat left. they do that to protect their pitching arm. and since they would naturally bat from the other side, they're terrible at it. you try hitting from the other side. also, it might be because they're not trying to strain themselves by taking mega hacks. it'd ruin their pitching for the rest of the game. hope this helps! <3

Answer 10

Very very few people have the ability to hit major league pitching. Unlike position players, pitchers make it to the show without regard to their ability to hit. Hitting-wise, pitchers are more like average people, or at least like average baseball players. They get there even though they do not have the ability to hit.